Changeable hawk eagle - juvenile...Nisaetus Limnaeetus

[Kaustuv Chatterjee]

Shot in Corbett, Bijrani zone, near the watchtower, Dec 2014

Ever seen a kid forlorn, lost and crying for it's mother? I think this was what was happening with this juvenile Changeable hawk eagle. It was 'crying' insistently and it's tone was that of a lost kid crying for it's mother...very insistent, continuous and lost..... Initially we could only hear it's loud 'cries' but couldn't see it. Eventually we glimpsed it through a gap in the foliage of a big tree behind which it was perched. In the jungle, there are these stories that stays on in one's mind, like the time I saw a Chital fawn tagging along with a Sambar hind and 2 sambar kids. They had come to cross the river adjacent to Sambar road in Dhikala zone. The Chital fawn had obviously been seperated from it's mother (who may have been killed or separated during a predator attack), and had been accepted in it's new 'family'. But it was somehow heart rending to see it and I have not stopped wondering what had happened and what will be it's fate with it's new 'family'...will it eventually perish because the Chital doe will eventually disown it, or will it be 'adopted' and grow up...

Even with this juvenile, I wonder if it's mother came back after a couple of hours with food. I believe Murugan Anantharaman saw the same juvenile calling in the same spot 2 days before me...

Shot with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 300 mm f4 + TC 14E, at 420 mm, ISO 400, 1/1000s - F/7.1, -0.3EV, spot metering